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  1. Lola Young stays at number one

    Chart · Philip · 26/02/25 11:40

    Lola Young bags a second week at number one. Central Cee scores a second number one album.

    Lola Young gets a second week at the top of the singles chart. Central Cee has the number one album.

    After climbing to the top of the pile last week, Lola Young gets a second week at number one with Messy. It is the first new song by a British act to spend a second week at the top since Chase & Status and Stormzy’s Backbone last August.

    The rest of the top five is also unchanged (an all too common occurrence these days). Rose and Bruno Mars get a fifth successive week at number two (and sixth in total) with APT. Gracie Abrams is still at number three with That’s So True and Chrystal remains at number four with The Days. Gigi Perez stays put at number five with Sailor Song.

    Two of this week’s new entries are by Central Cee following the release of his new album. The higher of the two, by some distance, is CRG at number six. CRG stands for Can’t Rush Greatness which is the title of the album. If Central Cee’s output improves slowly, he should achieve greatness somewhere around the year 2158. Truth In The Lies, which features Lil Durk, is at number thirteen. He has now had 31 top forty hits. Why? How has this been allowed to happen?

    Tate McRae enters at number eight with Sports Car. That new song seems to have revived interest in It’s Ok I’m OK which reached number fourteen last September. It returns this week at number 37.

    Continuing with the car theme, Travis Scott enters at number 25 with 4 × 4. It is, of course, similar in quality to his previous 22 top forty hits. Yes, it’s rubbish.

    Still on cars, at least in the USA, Sam Fender enters at number fourteen with Arm’s Length, his latest single from his new album People Watching which is released next month (February). In car terms, he might be considered to be the equivalent of Paul McCartney’s band Wings. Judging by the songs released so far, the album should be a good one. The title track from the album climbs one place to number eighteen.

    Some people allow themselves to get incredibly het-up about whether the eighth letter of the alphabet should be called aitch or haitch. While I have always used the former pronunciation, I really don’t care if people want to say haitch. Another in the former camp (and, possibly, more passionate about his choice than I am) is Harrison Armstrong who performs under the moniker Aitch. He gets his first top forty hit since 2022 with A Guy Called ? at number 25. A guy called ?, along with the Mysterians, had a minor hit with 96 Tears in 1966. I don’t think this song is about him.

    Her biographical notes describe Sexyy Red as a spitter. Is spitting a musical genre now? She makes her chart debut this week at number 32 with Fat Juicy And Wet which may be the first hit single about a tomato. She is joined by Bruno Mars who gets his third hit in recent months after an absence of a few years. It is his 23rd top forty hit. All the others have reached the top twenty.

    Four of this week’s top five albums are new entries, starting with the one at the very top. That honour goes to Central Cee whose Can’t Rush Greatness, already mentioned above, becomes his second chart=topper. He reached number one with his mixtape 23 in 2022.

    The early front-runner in the albums chart was Teddy Swims’ I’ve Tried Everything But Therapy (Part 2). Part 1 has been a bit of a slow-burner. It entered at number 24 last January, climbed three places the following week and then slipped slowly out of the top forty.

    It has returned to the top forty a number of times since then and reached a new peak of number twelve last Christmas.

    EUSEXUA is not the name of a campaign to rejoin the body the UK left five years ago this week. It is the name of FKA Twigs’ album celebrating the Prague rave scene. Tahliah Barnett (to give her real name) reached number sixteen with her debut set LP1 in 2014. This is her highest charting album since then. It is number one in the vinyl albums chart.

    While Scottish band Mogwai have spent precisely one week in the top forty singles chart, their albums consistently do make the top forty. Their latest, The Bad Fire, is at number five to give them a fourth top ten entry. Its immediate predecessor, As The Love Continues, went all the way to number one in 2021.

    The top five is completed by Sabrina Carpenter’s Short ‘n’ Sweet at number four. It drops out of the top three for the first time after a run of 22 weeks, sixteen of them at number two.

    Outside the top five, there is just one other new entry. It comes from Matt Berry who is probably better known for his rather surreal comedy. He enters at number 22 with Heard Noises. His debut album was a rather bizarre collection of old television theme tunes.

  2. Lola Young makes it to number one

    Chart · Philip · 26/02/25 11:39

    Lola Young finally makes it to the top of the singles chart with Messy. Robbie Williams has his fifteenth number one album.

    A close race at the top of the singles chart. Robbie Williams gains a fifteenth number one album.

    There was a tight contest at the top of the singles chart with Lola Young and Rose & Bruno Mars aiming to replace Gracie Abrams. Abrams herself was also in the running.

    With Gracie Abrams in third place in Wednesday’s update, she was always likely to miss out on a ninth week at the top, and so it proved. We, therefore, get our first completely new number one since Abrams hit the top last November. That’s So True is down to number three.

    The race has been won by Lola Young who gets her first number one single with Messy. It has spent the last three weeks at number three, having been pushed down to number 33 by the flood of festive songs. After last year’s dearth of number one singles by British artists, it is good to see one nice and early this year. We are therefore spared from having the pretty dismal Apt by Rose and Bruno Mars as the number one single. That is at number two again.

    Chrystal’s The Days is up one place to number four. It swaps places with Gigi Perez’s Sailor Song which is now at number five.

    There are just two new entries this week. One of them isn’t great; the other is worse. The one that at least reaches the heights of “not great” goes by the name of DtMF and has been released under the name of Bad Bunny. Bad Bunny made his chart debut in 2018 as a featured artist on Cardi B’s I Like It. His first hit as a lead artist came later the same year. This is only his second hit as the lead artist. The title may, but probably doesn’t, stand for Dance The Morning Fandango.

    That brings us to the worse of the two new entries. Sadly, another Central Cee track has been inflicted on us and GBP, which features the equally dismal 21 Savage, enters at number six. Let’s hope this isn’t the first of a series of singles named after the international abbreviations for currencies.

    The race at the top of the albums chart wasn’t even slightly close with a new Robbie Williams collection finishing well ahead of all competitors.Better Man is the soundtrack album from the film of the same name, a biopic in which Williams is played by a CGI-generated monkey. Obviously.

    The soundtrack album contains a mixture of rerecorded versions of some of Robbie Williams’ solo hits with featured vocalists, a Take That song (Relight My Fire) and some songs written specifically for the film. It becomes Williams’ fifteenth number one album. His combined total of 22 number one singles and albums (excluding those with Take That) match the numbers achieved by Ed Sheeran, Eminem, the Rolling Stones and, erm, Westlife. Only Elvis Presley, The Beatles and Madonna have had more. Those number ones have occupied the top spot for 49 weeks, putting him twelfth on the all-time list. For the third time this month, thanks to Colin for that information.

    Better Man is not the only biopic about a musician in cinemas at the moment. A Complete Unknown, starring Timothee Chalamet as a young Bob Dylan, is also doing the rounds. That has helped a 2013 collection The Very Best Of Bob Dylan return to the chart at number 30.

    Sabrina Carpenter’s Short ‘n’ Sweet is at number two for a sixteenth week. Gracie Abrams’ The Secret Of Us jumps eleven places to number three. Sza’s SOS stays at number four and The Weeknd’s Highlights collection is back up to number five.

    While Robbie Williams is still able to have number one albums, David Gray's most successful years are long behind him. His first hit (and fourth release) album White Ladder, released in 2000, spent two weeks at number one the following year. It was in the top ten for a total of 40 weeks and spent 124 weeks in the top forty. His thirteenth studio album enters at number 25 and will probably be well outside the top forty next week.
  3. Gracie Abrams remains at the top of the singles chart for an eighth non-consecutive week. Chappell Roan climbs back to the top of the albums chart.

    Gracie Abrams remains at number one in the singles chart. Chappell Roan returns to the top of the albums chart.

    Gracie Abram’s second run at the top of the singles chart enters a third week, giving her a total of eight weeks at the top with That’s So True. The last song to spend exactly eight weeks at the top, again in two separate runs, was Calvin Harris and Ellie Goulding’s Miracle in spring 2023.

    Rose and Bruno Mars are still at number two with Apt. Lola Young is still at number three with Messy. Gigi Perez remains at number four with Sailor Song.Chrystal’s The Days moves back up to number five, one week after vacating that slot. Myles Smith’s Nice To Meet You enters the top ten for the first time, at number six. He performed the song on Graham Norton’s show last Friday (10 January).

    Once again, new entries are few and far between. Good quality new entries are even more of a rarity.

    The highest new entry is rather unusual. Radio 1’s Live Lounge, where artists generally record a version of one of their own songs plus a cover version, has been a feature on that radio station for many years. However, we don’t usually see recordings from that show turn up in the singles chart. It is even more odd to see such a song turn up over a decade after it was recorded. However, that has happened this week. Hozier recorded a version of Arctic Monkeys’ Do I Wanna Know back in September 2014, around the time Take Me To Church gave him his first big hit. It is a new entry this week at number 26.

    The next “new” entry is even older. Imogen Heap released Headlock in October 2006 and it spent a week at number 74. It became her second chart hit of 2006, bringing her total number of chart entries to three, seven years after her debut.. Headlock returned to the chart last year and now becomes her first top forty hit at number 37. It has apparently been used in the game Mouthwashing, a game of which I was previously unaware.

    At number 34 there is another irritating Disney song in the form of I Always Wanted A Brother, credited to Braelyn Rankins, Theo Somolou, Aaron Pierre and Kelvin Harrison Jnr. At least they’ve got several people to share the blame for this thing from Mufasa: The Lion King. Still, it’s better than Let It Go.

    Singer-songwriter Sam Barber entered the chart at number 46 two weeks ago with Indigo.Last week, it rose just five places, thereby ending up just outside the top forty. This week it is just inside the broadcast chart at number 39. It is Barber’s debut hit and also gives a chart debut to the featured artist Avery Anna. The song isn’t great but I still welcome its appearance in the chart. It allows me to mention that indigo was named by Isaac Newton. When he was working on the separation of white light into the colours of the rainbow, he could have stuck with just six colours. After all, there isn’t a great deal of difference between indigo and blue. However, Newton had a thing about the number seven, so insisted that there should be a separate colour between blue and violet. Who said this commentary wasn’t educational?

    Alex Warren returns at number 25 with Carry You Home. It has achieved a new peak, having got to number 32 last autumn.

    Chappell Roan returns to the top of the albums chart with The Rise And Fall Of A Midwest Princess. Its sales have been boosted this week by the release of a limited edition vinyl version. The album originally took ten weeks to reach the top ten and finally topped the chart seven weeks later. It hasn’t left the top ten since it got there last June.

    Sabrina Carpoenter’s Short ‘n’ Sweet spends a fifteenth week at number two. It has spent the whole of its 21-week chart life in the top three with two of them at number one. Sza’s SOS is at number four while Ed Sheeran’s mathematics Tour Collection is at five.

    Franz Ferdinand have the highest new entry with The Human Fear, their first new album since Always Ascending in February 2018. While it doesn't sound as fresh as their earlier work, it maintains their 100% record of top ten albums and gives them a highest chart position since Tonight reached number two in 2009.

    Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny gets into the top forty albums chart for the fist time with his sixth release DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS. The album’s title means I Should Take More Photos, or perhaps i sHOulD tAke MOrE phOtOS.

    Brighton punk band Lambrini Girls also make their chart debut, at number sixteen with Who Let The Dogs Out. Thankfully, their highly political album does not contain a cover of “song” by Baha Men. The fact that two of the tracks are called Bad Apple and Filthy Rich Nepo Baby should give an indication of the political stance taken by the band. There are other titles which I would prefer not to repeat here.
  4. Kendrick Lamar tops the UK singles chart for the first time, well into the second decade of his career. Sabrina carpenter returns to the top of the albums chart.

    Kendrick Lamar gets his first UK number one single. Sabrina Carpenter returns to the top of the albums chart.

    Kendrick Lamar had his first top forty hit in 2013 when he was the featured artist on Robin Thicke’s Give It 2 U. Since then he has amassed a total of 29 top forty hits with twelve of them reaching the top ten. It is, therefore, somewhat surprising that the rise of Not Like Us to number two last week saw him gain a new highest position in the UK singles chart. This week it climbs one more place to give him his first number one single this side of the Atlantic to add to his two chart-topping albums. The song has taken 25 weeks to reach the top. It dropped out of the chart altogether last October before returning two weeks ago. Before last week, its peak position was number six in May last year.

    Kendrick Lamar is also at number five with All The Stars (with help from Sza) and at four with Luther (also with Sza).

    The top of the chart is, therefore, no longer Messy as Lola Young slips back to number two after four weeks at the top. Chappell Roan’s Pink Pony Club is at number three.

    When the Official Charts Company (OCC) introduced the rule restricting to three the number of songs by a single artist that would be allowed in the singles chart, it was a response to every track from a new Ed Sheeran album landing in that week’s top twenty. I speculated at the time that a new Sheeran album might contain tracks credited to Elvis Presley featuring Ed Sheeran, Taylor Swift featuring Ed Sheeran, etc. That didn’t happen, but this week we did get what looked like it might be an attempt at getting around the rule.

    A new album by Partynextdoor and Drake contained a mix of tracks credited to Partynextdoor featuring Drake and others to Drake featuring Partynextdoor. Sure enough, Monday’s singles chart update included three songs for each combination. However, one reason for compiling the updates is to allow the OCC to spot any blatant attempt to bend the rules. They acted accordingly and this week’s new entries include three from the relevant album.

    CN Tower is at number 22, one place behind Gimme A Hug. Nokia is at number nineteen. Drake is cited as the lead performer on the latter two songs, Partynextdoor on the first. They are all predictably bad.

    Last Friday a new deluxe version of Sabrina Carpenter's Short ‘n’ Sweet album (a version that is less short than the original; its sweetness is a matter of taste) was released. Predictably enough, tracks from the album enter this week’s top forty. The continued popularity of Bed Chem (up to number eighteen this week), and the three-song rule referenced above, limits the number of new Carpenter songs to two. Busy Woman is at number ten. Please Please Please re-enters at number nine, helped by a new version of the song featuring the living legend who is Dolly Parton. It dropped out of the chart (from number five) last October as a result of the three-song rule.

    That leaves just one new entry that is not the result of a new album release. AJ Tracey’s latest rubbish has made it into the chart without an album to help it. Crush, which features Jorja Smith, is at number 23.

    As already mentioned, a new version of Sabrina Carpenter’s Short ‘n’ Sweet was released last week. It has generated enough new sales to see it return to the top of the albums chart this week with almost half of its sales coming from actual physical sales and a small number of downloads. It is its third week at the top following a week last summer and another in December.

    The unlucky losers behind Sabrina Carpenter who get a fifth number two album with Critical Thinking. The album is not much of a departure from their usual style which means there are several highly political tracks. There4 is also Dear Stephen, a song directly aimed at one Stephen Patrick Morrissey. Its lyrics hint at disappointment with Morrissey’s political statements rather than the rage we often see in Manic Street Preachers songs.

    Manic Street Preachers might have thought that their toughest competition at the top of the chart would be from the Partynextdoor / Drake collaboration. However, to the nation’s relief, Drake’s popularity is waning and the horribly-titled $ome $exy $ongs 4 U is at number three. If its “sales” were halved for each crime against the English language in the title, it would have been much closer to its deserved position.

    In singles terms, The Wombats reached their peak with songs from their debut UK release A Guide To Love, Loss And Desperation which came out in 2007. However, the album itself stalled just outside the top ten. While subsequent singles made little impact on the chart, each album since then has reached the top ten with 2022’s Fix Yourself Not The World going to number one. The follow-up Oh! The Ocean is at number four.

    Central Cee completes the top five with Can’t Rush Greatness at number five.

    Singer-songwriter Louis Dunford is at number right with his debut album Be Lucky. He is the son of Linda Robson who has been acting since before she was a teenager.

    Albums of cover versions by a seemingly random group of musicians don’t make the chart very often. Sadly, one of the exceptions this century has been a series of albums recorded by young children. That project seems to have gone away for now (fingers crossed). In its place we have Punk Rock Factory who have released a number of albums of covers of well-known songs. Mist of the songs they cover are not exactly ones you would expect to be given the punk treatment. Their latest album All Hands On Deck includes Boom Shake The Room, C’est La Vie and Bring It All Back. Their previous releases have failed to chart, but this one is at number 22. Their only previous chart success was a number 40 hit with their version of God gave Rock And Roll To You in 2021.

    M Huncho is at number with his new mixtape U2opia, the follow-up to Utopia.
  5. Lola Young's Messy remains at the top of the singles chart for a fourth week. Taylor Swift gets a record-breaking thirteenth number one album.

    Lola Young stays at the top of the singles chart. Taylor Swift gets another number one album with a late release.

    Lola Young’s Messy extends its run at the top to four weeks. It is the longest running new song at number one by a British act since Calvin Harris and Ellie Goulding spent a total of eight weeks there with Miracle in spring 2023. Her song with Tyler The Creator, Like Him, is a re-entry at number 38.

    Kendrick Lamar soars 25 places to number two with Not Like Us. For an explanation why, see the albums section.

    Lady Gaga’s Abracadabra climbs three places to number three. Chrystal falls to number five with The Days.

    The stream of solo singles by members of K-Pop bands continues with the arrival of Born Again by Lisa, Doja Cat and Raye at number thirteen. It’s not very good.

    Chappell Roan was among the performers at last weekend’s Grammy Awards ceremony. That has helped Pink Pony Club to jump to a new peak of number four nearly five months after it made its top forty debut. Roan’s Red Wine Supernova returns at number 32. It spent ten weeks in the top forty last year, but got no higher than number 31.

    Singer-songwriter Alex Warren gets his first top ten hit with this week’s highest new entry Ordinary at number seven. While it is not a masterpiece, it is still better than just ordinary. Warren reached number 35 last autumn with Burning Down. Its top forty run lasted just two weeks, but it is back this week at a new peak of number 34.

    Sza and Kendrick Lamar have been hanging around the lower reaches of the singles chart since the start of the year with 30 For 30. This week it climbs into the top forty for the first time at number 39. In an age when the cricket authorities keep inventing ever shooter versions of the game, the title seems like a bizarre score from a new version scheduled to last even longer than a five-day Test match. Unfortunately, the song is so boring that it seems to last a lot longer than a Test match.

    Taylor Swift continues to be in the phase of her career when even an album released part way through the week can go straight to number one. Lover (Live From Paris) was released in a limited edition in 2023. Now, in time for Valentine’s Day, it has been given a wider release including a heart-shaped vinyl edition (pass the sickbag). It is not available on streaming sites, so it is the first album to reach number one purely on sales for eight years

    The last album to top the chart on sales alone was Taylor Swift’s own Reputation. That is one of Swift’s thirteen number one albums. She is now ahead of Madonna as the female solo artist with the most number one albums. She and Elvis Presley have had more chart-topping albums than any other non-British act. Eight of Swift’s number ones have come in the 2020s.

    Before the release of Lover (Live From Paris), Dublin band Inhaler were leading the pack with their new album Open Wide. The band is still probably best known for featuring the vocal talents of Elijah Hewson, son of Paul, or Bono to use his stage name. Unless he is keeping it very quiet (which would be understandable) his bandmate Robert Keating is not related to Ronan. Open Wide ends up at numbertwo.

    Last weekend Kendrick Lamar performed at half-time in a glorified version of catch which Americans like to call a sport. His album GNX climbs back up to number three.

    After continuing to use the name Years & Years for his solo career, Olly Alexander has now released Polari, his first album under his own stage name. The album takes its name from a slang language used by gay men at a time when homosexual acts between men were illegal in the UK. The language enjoyed a raised profile when it was used by two characters in the 1960s radio comedy Round The Horne, The album of the same name is at number seventeen.

    Dream Theater get an eighth top forty album with Parasomnia at number 23. They are one place (and seven top forty albums) ahead of Block 33 who make their debut with The Promised Land at number 24.
  6. Lola Young spends a third week at number one with Messy. The weeknd gets a fourth number one album.

    Lola Young remains at the top of the singles chart. The Weeknd gets the number one album.

    Lola Young gets a third week at number one in the singles chart with Messy. This means that new songs by British artists have already spent as long at number one in 2025 than in the whole of last year.

    There is a familiar look to the rest of the top five. It contains the same songs as last week, and the week before, and in the same order. Apt by Rose and Bruno Mars gets a sixth successive week, and seventh in total, at number two. It is one of the longest runs in the runner-up spot for a song that hasn’t topped the chart. Gracie Abrams is at number three with That’s So True. Chrystal stays put at four with The Days and Gigi Perez’s Sailor Song is still at five. How exciting.

    Lady Gaga, or her record company, chose to release her new single Abracadabra in the middle of the chart week rather than on the customary Friday date. That being so, it has done very well to enter as high as number six. Will it become her seventh number one in the coming weeks? It would be an impressive achievement for someone so far into their career.

    The Weeknd released his latest album last week which means that tracks from it enter the singles chart this week. Sao Paulo, which reached number 22 last November, is at number 21. Cry For Me is at number eight. Timeless, featuring Playboy Carti, climbs back up to number seven. The Weeknd has now had 39 top forty singles with eighteen of them reaching the top ten.

    The Gorillaz song Feel Good Inc is fabulous, Raving In The Studio by Aitch and Bou, which samples Feel Good Inc is not. It’s not truly terrible, but it is closer to that end of the scale than the fabulous end. Nonetheless, it is a new entry at number 40 to give Aitch a twentieth top forty hit. BVou was last seen as one of the featured artists on Chase & Status’s Baddadan in 2023, a song that managed to be both awful and quite good at the same time.

    Sabrina Carpenter’s Taste re-enters at number 39. Benson Boone’s Beautiful Things returns at number 33. Charli XCX and Billie Eilish return at number 31 with the mess that is Guess. Kendrick Lemar’s awful Not Like Us returns like a bad smell at number 27.

    Any artist who releases a critically acclaimed album then has the problem of trying to maintain the same quality for subsequent albums. Not many artists succeed. Among those who has yet to match his finest work is Abel Tesfaye, better known as The Weeknd. His 2020 album After Hours was rightly lauded for its high quality, including the excellent singles Blinding Lights, Save Your Tears and In Your Eyes.

    The Weeknd’s follow-up Dawn Fm was a bit of a disappointment. Now we have Hurry Up Tomorrow to assess. Any album whose full-length version extends to 22 songs is likely to have some dud tracks, and this is no exception. At its best Hurry Up Tomorrow is great. Other tracks are less good, although there was only one that was bad enough for me to skip it part way through. As expected, it has followed After Hours and Dawn FM in topping the chart. His Highlights collection is at number four.

    Central Cee’s Can’t Rush Greatness falls one place to number two. Sabrina Carpenter’s Short ‘n’ Sweet is back up to number three. Ed Sheeran’s Tour Collection is at number five.

    Forty-year-old RØRY enters at number ten with her debut album Restoration. The rather more experienced Kim Wilde is at number 27 with her eighth top forty album Closer.

    English duo Maribou State reach their highest ever chart position with Hallucinating Love at number nine. It is only their third studio album in a fourteen-year career.